Movie · 1956 · Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Romance · 3h 2m · G · English
Curator score: 4.5/10 (32.2K ratings)
It's a wonderful world, if you'll only take the time to go around it!
Overview
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.5/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Metacritic: 69
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Michael Anderson
Production
Michael Todd Company
Cast
David Niven, Cantinflas, Shirley MacLaine, Robert Newton, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley, Charles Boyer, Gilbert Roland, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, Buster Keaton, John Carradine, Peter Lorre, George Raft, Tim McCoy, Joe E. Brown, Melville Cooper, Reginald Denny, Ronald Colman, Trevor Howard
Where to watch
TCM
Curator Review
Verdict
A lavish, star-studded 1950s spectacle with real charm, playful set pieces, and impressive scale, but also a bloated pace and episodic structure that can feel more like a parade of attractions than a tightly told adventure. It’s worth seeing for its ambition, production design, and old-Hollywood pageantry, especially if you enjoy classic road-trip epics and broad comedy.
Best for
fans of classic Hollywood spectacle
viewers who enjoy globe-trotting adventure comedies
people interested in Oscar-era studio excess
audiences who like colorful mid-century production design
Skip if
you need brisk pacing
you dislike episodic storytelling
you prefer modern humor and emotional depth
you’re impatient with long runtime and digressive detours
Overview
Around the World in 80 Days is the kind of movie that feels built to impress an audience before it fully convinces them. The scale is enormous, the locations are varied, and the film keeps finding new excuses to turn travel into spectacle, from comic detours to elaborate pageantry. At its best, it captures a buoyant mid-century confidence in cinema as a machine for wonder.
Worth noting
That said, the movie’s biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: it wants to show everything. The result is a charming but shaggy journey, with a stop-start rhythm that can make the adventure feel less urgent than the premise promises. Some viewers will enjoy the leisurely sprawl and the parade of cameos; others will feel the runtime in their bones.
Bottom line
What still makes it worthwhile is the craftsmanship. The color, costumes, and widescreen staging give it a distinctly theatrical grandeur, and the film’s light comic tone keeps it from becoming a stiff prestige exercise. If you approach it as a lavish cinematic time capsule rather than a lean adventure story, it has a lot to offer.
Top Letterboxd reviews
demi adejuyigbe · 434 likes
For better and for worse, easily the most British movie I've ever seen. Fun to see all of these shots lined up in a way that you know they're cameos, but have absolutely no idea who the hell they are.
I have fond memories of watching and rewatching the 2004 Coogan/Chan remake of this film so I was very excited to watch the original, and honestly I think I enjoyed the goofy remake more! This one is pretty bloated at… more
Paul (1★) · 398 likes
A brief list of movies that were not nominated for best film in 1956:The Searchers, Early Spring, The Killing, A Man Escaped, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Aparajito, Street of Shame, The Wrong Man, Godzilla: King of the Monsters.A brief list of movies that were nominated in 1956, but didn't win:Friendly Persuasion, Giant, The King and I, The Ten Commandments.
Academy, what the hell were you thinking?
Bryce Receveur (2★) · 236 likes
My mommy said I didn't have to take the garbage out today because watching this movie was enough of a chore for one day.
Matt Singer (2★) · 203 likes
I have to assume there were no other movies released in 1956, so the Academy had no choice but to give the Oscar for Best Picture to this interminable travelogue out of sheer necessity. Its race around the world has all the urgency of a mid-afternoon nap. Maybe if Phileas Fogg didn’t keep stopping his trip for a 15 minute dance sequence and a 20 minute bullfight and a 10 minute acrobat show and a 5 minute parade he wouldn’t be so behind schedule!
David Sims (1.5★) · 176 likes
were we all aware this boring nonsense begins with a 10 minute montage about Jules Verne introduced by Edward R. Murrow